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Bomb hits sunni shiite talks killing 15 { August 2007 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/nation_world/20070925_Bomb_hits_Shiite-Sunni_talks__15_die.htmlhttp://www.philly.com/philly/news/nation_world/20070925_Bomb_hits_Shiite-Sunni_talks__15_die.html
Posted on Tue, Sep. 25, 2007
Bomb hits Shiite-Sunni talks; 15 die
By Lauren Frayer
Associated Press
BAQUBAH, Iraq - A suicide bomber struck a U.S.-promoted reconciliation meeting of Shiite and Sunni tribal sheikhs as they were washing their hands or sipping tea yesterday, killing at least 15 people, including the city's police chief, and wounding about 30 others.
Two U.S. soldiers were wounded in the 8:30 p.m. blast at a Shiite mosque in Baqubah, a former al-Qaeda in Iraq stronghold about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials.
The brazen attack, which bore the hallmarks of al-Qaeda in Iraq, represented a major challenge to U.S. efforts to bring together Shiites and Sunnis in Diyala province, scene of some of the most bitter fighting in Iraq.
Witnesses and officials said the bomber struck when most of the victims were in the mosque courtyard cleaning their hands or drinking tea during Iftar, the daily meal in which Muslims break their sunrise-to-sunset fast during the holy month of Ramadan.
Security guards approached a man after noticing him walking rapidly through the courtyard. As the guards challenged him, the man detonated an explosive belt, setting off the devastating blast, Police Maj. Salah al-Jurani said.
Jurani said he believed the provincial governor, Raad Rashid al-Tamimi, was the intended target. The governor was wounded and his driver was killed, Jurani said.
The dead also included Baqubah's police chief, Brig. Gen. Ali Dalyan, and the Diyala provincial operations chief, Brig. Gen. Najib al-Taie, according to security officials.
U.S. officials have accelerated efforts to reconcile Sunni and Shiite tribes in Diyala after American soldiers gained control of Baqubah last summer. Al-Qaeda had declared Baqubah the capital of its Islamic State of Iraq.
The United States announced this month that top leaders of 19 of the 25 major tribes in Diyala - 13 Sunni and six Shiite - had agreed to end sectarian violence and support the government. The effort is loosely modeled on an alliance of Sunni tribes which banded together last year to fight al-Qaeda in Anbar province.
Also yesterday, an American soldier was killed by hostile fire in Salahuddin province north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. No further details were released.
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